It's all about the attitude.

Jobs Fill Your Pocket. Travel Fills Your Soul.

Traveling for a living is amazing, but sometimes you come to realize you are missing the treasures that are in your own backyard. Growing up in South Jersey my family would take me to the Jersey shore during the summer months. The thing about the Jersey shore; there are so many little towns to visit! Everyone has their favorites for one reason or another. Most of our visits ranged from Wildwood, Ocean City, or Cape May. Now or then my family would chose another area to explore, but not often, you mostly kept to what you knew. It could not have been better timing on Jared’s part to say, lets take a trip to LBI (Long Beach Island). The weather in the city was going to be in the 90’s so on the island it was in the 70’s. Perfect.

For once I felt like a tourist in my own state because I’m not that familiar with LBI. Long Beach Island can be highly associated with the original location of Ron Jon Surf Shop that opened in 1961! Or in more recent news the when Hurricane Sandy damaged large portions of the island in 2012. The island is separated into six different municipalities.

We stayed at the Surf City Hotel, which just had some major renovations. The location was perfect as we could walk to the beach, with an entrance on the same block. The second day we grabbed some food at the restaurant bar. The happy hour prices are great. We shared some clam steamers and a pizza or what they refer to as bar pie.

Lunch was Surf Taco. I had heard many great things about this place so I was thrilled to try it out myself. Who doesn’t love tacos? This place does not disappoint, an endless list of types of tacos, burritos, and quesadillas. You can’t go wrong and its BYOB.

Looking for local attractions, stop by the Barnegat Light House, you can climb all 217 steps if you wish to reach the top!

For dinner we checked out Northside Bar & Grille. Wednesday night was trivia which we did not take part in, but seemed to draw a large crowd. I had a chicken italiano sandwich and he had the cheeseburger which uses meat from the local butcher-Okies.

For breakfast- The Chicken or the Egg (or better referred to as chegg), in Beach Haven which was seen on Man vs. Food. The menu has a mix of classic and unique items. I had the Goshdarnwich, one egg, bacon & cheese between two slices of thick french toast, served with a side of maple syrup, served with home fries. Amazing!!!!! What a treat!

I picked up a bag of coffee from How You Brewin?, a local coffee company in Surf City. Since I had coffee with breakfast I didn’t have a cup there, but just decided to take the LBI blend of beans home to try.

This island has such a relaxed and welcoming vibe. I’m sure as soon as the summer officially begins the tourists will swarm down. Jared did a nice job of showing me some of his favorite places around the island and what beautiful place it really is. What a great local place for a getaway!

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“Done laid around, done stayed around this old town too long and it seems like I’ve got to travel on” -Bob Dylan